March 14, 2008
No longer for sale
Paul Cejas, having bought the Ambassadorship to Belgium from one Clinton, now thinks he can buy the Democratic Presidential nomination for the other. He's part of a group of top donors to the DNC who, having met with former DNC Chair and current Clinton fundraiser Terry McAuliffe, is telling the DNC that if the Florida delegates selected contrary to the rules aren't seated, he's going to ask for his $28,500 back. (McAuliffe says he encouraged phone calls to the DNC but doesn't approve of the blackmail. R-i-i-i-i-i-i-ght.)
What Cejas, McAuliffe, and company don't seem to have noticed — but you can bet Howard Dean has — is that they're as obsolete as Walkmans and floppy disks. Barack Obama has raised almost $200 million for his campaign, most of it on line. Think he won't be able to get his million-plus donors to kick in an average of $50 each to the DNC, once he's the nominee?
One important aspect of the Obama revolution is that he won't need to sell embassies or regulatory decisions or tax breaks or pardons or nights in the Lincoln Bedroom for campaign cash. It's a whole new concept; you might call it "public financing." And it means that the money-men no longer get to call the shots.
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